Eighteen-year-old Hannah Conroy has always dreamed of following in her father's footsteps as a healer. But in 19th-century England, the medical profession is closed to women. She sees midwifery as a back door into that world, but her fledgling career is crushed by personal tragedy. Seeking to escape a possible murder conviction in England, Hannah's world is turned upside down as she boards a boat bound for Melbourne.

Millions of years ago, a meteorite fell to earth and shattered, revealing a beautiful blue stone. One hundred thousand years ago, a girl named Tall One found the crystal on the African plain, and it formed her destiny - as well as the destiny of generations to come. From ancient Israel to Imperial Rome, medieval England to 15th-century Germany, the 18th-century Caribbean, and the 19th-century American West, the destiny of the stone and the history of the world unfold.

Occupied by the Germans, the strategically located town of Sofia, Poland, stands on the brink of annihilation in 1941. As every arrest and execution brings total obliteration closer to reality, two medical doctors devise an ingenious plan - to stage a typhus epidemic that will force the Nazis to evacuate. The locals and their enemy swiftly become enmeshed in what soon becomes the most daring act of resistance in World War II.

After losing a chance to be an assistant professor, Dr. Mark Davison is saved from unemployment by a stroke of extraordinary good fortune. A stranger arrives on his doorstep with an item any historian would envy - the journal of a Victorian Egyptologist who disappeared while looking for the legendary tomb of King Akhnaton. Mark accepts the offer to dig in the fabled sands of Tel el-Amarna to discover the grave - and a treasure that has eluded every seeker thus far.

Australia, 1871. Following her mother's sudden death, Joanna Drury sets sail from India and arrives in Melbourne to claim the property left to her by her mother - and to trace the mysteries of her family's past. From her first steps on shore, Joanna becomes entangled with a lost boy who leads her to the fascinating Hugh Westbrook. She agrees to look after the child in exchange for Hugh's help in finding her inheritance. But she falls deeply in love with Hugh and with life at his sheep station, Merinda.